Last year’s PGA TOUR started nearly the same way as years before. Tiger Woods opens his season in San Diego, probably one of his favorite places on earth, wins the Buick Invitational, the World Golf Championships—Accenture Match Play Championship and then the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his first three starts. The start to his 2008 campaign had many asking if this was to be another 2000 season for Woods when he won nine times in his 20 appearances, three of them majors.
With this guy, anything could happen.
From Orlando and Bay Hill, Woods ventured to Doral and the World Golf Championships—CA Championship and missed his fifth victory in a row, fourth on the season and fourth in a row at Doral, finishing alone in fifth, his worst finish of the year.  
Instead, it was Geoff Ogilvy. With five of the top-10 players in the world chasing him as the final round finally came to a close, the talented Aussie strung together nine pars on the back nine to hold them off. The title made him just the third player to win more than one World Golf Championships title, although he and Darren Clarke have a ways to go to catch Woods' total of 15.
Ogilvy shot 17 under to finish one stroke ahead of two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, three-time major champion and winner of the 2008 FedExCup Vijay Singh and 2003 U.S. Open winner, Jim Furyk.
The cream was rising to the top as the TOUR made its way to Augusta three weeks later. Woods was heavily favored to earn his fifth Green Jacket, but somebody forgot to mention how much of a favorite to Trevor Immelman.
Four months after he had a tumor removed from his back, Immelman handled the wind and pressure of Augusta National far better than anyone chasing him on Sunday to win the Masters, the first South African in a green jacket in 30 years.
Immelman held it together around Amen Corner and stretched his lead to as many as six shots on the back nine, cooling off a season that had entered the first major of the year with so much hype and anticipation.
A two-putt par on the final hole gave him a 3-over 75, matching the highest final round by a Masters champion. Even so, it was good enough for a three-shot victory over Woods, whose hopes for a calendar Grand Slam ended with a thump.
Woods never got within five shots of the lead when he was on the course, twice missed birdie putts inside eight feet and had to settle for a 72 and his second consecutive runner-up finish in the Masters.
"I learned my lesson there with the press," Woods said with a smile. He was the one who started the talk about a Grand Slam by stating three months before that winning all four majors in the same year was "easily within reason."
We believed him.
But then, a void was created. Woods would leave the circuit to have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, the third such procedure he had performed on the joint. His absence would leave millions of dollars on the table for those willing to step up and take it.
Who would?

The First Void

Some of the old school names had appeared on the top of a couple leaderboards. Phil Mickelson had won for the second time in his career at Colonial, winning the Crowne Plaza Invitational with a miraculous wedge approach to the 18th green on Sunday, making birdie there for the fourth day in a row.
It was the second victory of the season for Mickelson. He won the Northern Trust Open earlier, giving Mickelson the “Hogan’s Alley” sweep for the year. Both Riviera and Colonial have earned the nickname because Hogan, a wonderful shotmaker if you haven’t heard, dominated both courses throughout his career.
Several young players stepped into the winner’s circle in Woods’ absence. Boo Weekley, the character of the year with his on-course antics, especially during the Ryder Cup when he rode his driver like a horse off the first tee on Sunday, won the week following the Masters at the Verizon Heritage. His victory was followed by Adam Scott, a young Australian with great upside potential that hasn’t developed as quickly as some would have guessed, won the EDS Byron Nelson Championship in Dallas and Anthony Kim won the Wachovia Championship without the defending champion, Woods, in attendance.  
Sergio Garcia made his appearance at THE PLAYERS Championship pay off and erase some doubt that he could prevail in big tournaments against most of the best players. The then 28-year-old Spaniard became just the second European to win the TOUR's showcase event as he beat Paul Goydos on the first hole of sudden death, the par-3 17th. The victory was the seventh of his career and the first in 54 starts since his last win in 2005.
Garcia closed with a 71, one of just eight sub-par scores on a brutally windy day at TPC Sawgrass, to force the playoff. He rolled in a clutch seven-footer for par on the final hole of regulation. The one club in his bag that had been giving him the most turmoil had finally come through for him—his putter.
Woods returned for the U.S. Open with many speculating that he would have some rust on his game and wasn’t nearly the overwhelming favorite he was for the Masters. Others wondered if his knee had enough time to heal.
He didn’t disappoint anyone except those who doubted his ability to come back. We were all glued to our televisions as Woods battled and winced in pain after every shot. But it was Torrey Pines. And it was the U.S. Open. The drama was amplified when a 45-year-old Rocco Mediate took Woods 91 holes before allowing him to be crowned the Open champion.
One shot behind after a collapse no one saw coming, Woods birdied the 18th hole to force sudden death against a journeyman with a creaky back who simply wouldn't go away. But that one extra hole was enough to doom Mediate, trying to become the oldest U.S. Open champion at 45 years and 6 months.
He put his tee shot in the bunker on No. 7, knocked his approach off a cart path and against the bleachers, chipped some 18 feet past the hole and missed the par putt. On the verge of one of golf's greatest upsets, Mediate instead became another victim.
“It was good. I threw everything I had, everything I had,” he said following the playoff. “He had to burn the last to stay in it again and he did it. He's remarkable.”
It was discovered afterwards that Woods, who was obviously in a lot of pain during the final round on Sunday and the 18-hole playoff on Monday, had a injured ligament in the knee and was compounded with stress fractures of his lower leg.
Woods revealed on the Wednesday following his victory that he had been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ACL in his left knee, and that he suffered a double stress fracture in his left tibia two weeks before the U.S. Open. He told the world he would have season-ending surgery, knocking him out of the final two majors and the Ryder Cup.
“Now, it is clear that the right thing to do is to listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee,” Woods said on his Web site.
He sure wasn’t listening to doctors by playing the U.S. Open, a victory that now looks even more impressive.
Basically, Woods won his 14th major championship title on one leg, and then waved goodbye to the remainder of the season.
There were two majors left to go and, with Woods out of the picture, the question was who would now be the man to beat.
Once again, the veterans took the stage leading up to the British Open with Stewart Cink winning in Hartford and Kenny Perry winning twice in three weeks and making a case for Player of the Year. Young upstart Anthony Kim won for a second time at the Tiger Woods Foundation’s AT&T National at Congressional Country Club. Like Wachovia, Woods wasn’t there, either. Coming off surgery, flying wasn’t exactly the best thing for Woods to be doing at the time.

Paddy’s Sweep

As the focus shifted to Royal Birkdale, the site of the 2008 British Open Championship, all the talk was that this would be the first major to be played without Woods since 1996. Many were questioning whether the winner would truly be the Champion Golfer of the Year without the No. 1 ranked player in the field.
But all that hype was squelched when Irishman Padraig Harrington won his second consecutive Open. So what if Woods wasn’t in the field. He was in attendance in 2007 when Harrington won in a playoff over Sergio Garcia.
The Irishman fired a magnificent 1-under 69 in the final round on Sunday for a 3-over-par 283 total and a four-shot win over Ian Poulter to become the first European in more than a century -- 16th overall -- to win golf's oldest championship in consecutive years. Harrington's 69 was one of only five sub-par rounds on Sunday.
Earlier in the week, much of the attention was directed toward Greg Norman as the 53-year-old opened with a pair of 70s and a third-round 72. He actually held the lead at the turn on Sunday, but Harrington held onto the Claret Jug with a just-try-to-catch-me 32 on the back nine. Norman couldn't keep up. He shot 77 to finish tied for third and the 30th major top 10 in his career.
Story of the year, perhaps. But one we had heard before. Norman had entered the final round with the lead in eight majors in his career. Only once did he claim the title. That was the 1986 British Open Championship at Turnberry.
He does qualify for an invitation to the Masters this year. Remember that one.
Heading toward the PGA Championship at Oakland Hills near Detroit, the TOUR first made a stop in Akron and Firestone Country Club. The fact that Woods wasn’t there was actually a relief for the field of 81. This year they might have a chance. Woods has won there six times since 1999 and has never finished out of the top five.
But who would it be? Perry was the hottest coming in. One of the under-30 group could see the light, maybe Garcia or Kim. Instead Vijay Singh, who we hadn’t heard from in 34 appearances, held his hands over his head in either triumph or relief after making his final putt for a one-shot victory.
On the verge of throwing away a World Golf Championships event, as Mickelson had done ahead of him, Singh overcame some shaky putting on Sunday on the back nine by making the only one that mattered.
Three times in the previous 12 months he had at least a share of the 54-hole lead and failed to finish it off. Needing two putts from 30 feet to end the drought, the last thing he wanted was the kind of putt that has given him fits.
With par putts on the final two holes, Singh closed with a 2-under 68 to hold off hard-charging Lee Westwood, Stuart Appleby and the fast-fading Mickelson, who lost a one-shot lead with three bogeys on his final four holes.
At Oakland Hills Country Club, known as, "The Monster," Ireland's Harrington couldn’t be intimidated in the 90th PGA Championship.
With an incredible 8-under mark over the final 36 holes thanks to matching 4-under-par 66s, Harrington posted a 3-under 277 total for a two-shot win over Sergio Garcia and Ben Curtis on Sunday for the Irishman's second major win in three weeks.
When push came to shove over the final three holes at Oakland Hills on Sunday, an inspired Harrington played them in 1 under, while Garcia and Curtis were 1 over. That was the difference and it opened up a fair argument if Harrington, and not Woods, was going to be Player of the Year.
"Next question, please," Garcia said, shaking his head, after being asked when he will win his first major. "Let's try to keep this as positive as we can, please."
     Garcia didn't throw this one away, as he did at Carnoustie against Harrington in 2007.

FedExCup Finale

Following the regular season, the newly tweaked FedExCup playoffs began with the hope of a more “playoff feel.” The prospects for that effect were good without the dominating presence of Woods, who was still fourth on the FedExCup points list heading into the final four events. With the TOUR brass standing by with their fingers crossed, hoping last year’s finale would be more interesting than the year before, Vijay Singh went out and won the first two events. The crests fell. Back to the drawing board.
The big Fijian, at age 45, began his six-week plan with a win at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. It was Singh’s first World Golf Championships event and 32nd victory on TOUR, putting him in the record books for most victories by an international player. He had been tied with Harry "Lighthorse" Cooper of England since winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March 2007, a victory that seemed like a lifetime ago.
The victory convinced Singh that he was the best putter in the world, and it showed when he rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt to extend the playoff he would later win at The Barclays, the first of the four playoff events.
A closing 63 that included eight birdies and a mile worth of putts, gave Singh his second straight title -- and the third in five starts -- at the Deutsche Bank Championship. His lead in the race for the $10-million bonus was so large at that point, all Singh had to do was complete 72 holes at East Lake at THE TOUR Championship to win the prize.
The FedExCup was a snoozer, but there was excitement. Camilo Villegas, one of the new breed who represents the future of the TOUR, jumped into the spotlight, flexed his guns and went wire-to-wire at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis at the BMW Championship. Then, proving golf is a result of motivation like Singh proved in the first half, the Columbian heartthrob fired a 66 on Sunday at East Lake to get into a playoff with Garcia, which Villegas won. It was the second playoff loss for Garcia in the FedExCup finale. He was victim to Singh in Boston.
The TOUR brain trust got together afterward and began, once again, to retool the FedExCup playoff system to add spice to a, so far, tasteless affair.
For this year, the FedExCup points won’t be reset until THE TOUR Championship unlike before when they were reset prior to The Barclays, making the regular season performance more important. Then, they quintupled the points for the playoff events, making playoff performance important, too. If a guy wins a TOUR season event, it’s worth 500 points. If he wins a playoff event, he gets 2,500. It’s easier to understand, at least.
With these changes, every player in the 30-man field in Atlanta will have a mathematical chance to win THE TOUR Championship and the FedExCup along with its gaudy $10-million prize.
We will see.

Ryder Cup Flag Waving

Following the finale, there was some real excitement in the Ryder Cup because it was starting to border on ridiculous. The American’s inability to win a Ryder Cup in what is the most-anticipated biannual match-play event against the Europeans had reached three in a row - the last two by the most lopsided margins in the Cup’s history.
But Captain Paul Azinger had a plan. He finagled a big change in the PGA of America’s selection process that weighted the points in favor of the current year instead of over two years and gave him four random picks instead of two. He then divided the team of 12 players into distinct “pods” based on the perceived player’s temperament, which of course was way out there. Captain Azinger was clearly not coloring within the lines.
Sounds like hoodoo, but something needed to be done.
He didn’t know how his young team would react. Six of his players had never even played in a Ryder Cup before. The good thing was that they didn’t know what it was like to lose. It worked. The enthusiasm was infectious at Valhalla. Crazy, really.
The result was a convincing 16 1/2 to 11 1/2 victory over Nick Faldo’s European squad that left the Kentucky fans rocking and celebrating with the team on the balcony of the clubhouse. In a show of good sportsmanship, the Euros joined their counterparts in the festivities.
Now that’s the way it should be.

The Outlook
 
There are hundreds of questions to be answered this season. The three biggest are: When will Tiger return? How will he play when he returns? And what will happen if he doesn’t play well or return at all?
It’s all speculation even through the rumors. But I’m sure this time he’ll listen to his doctors and not return until he’s ready. I think he now understands why they told him not to play in the U.S. Open, even though it did add to his legacy. So it’s not really about when, but how he will play. Through all the theory that was spewed before his U.S. Open performance about being off since the Masters and recovering from surgery that could leave him behind practice-wise—he showed us.
The man is Teflon or something. He’s rustproof.
He won’t return until everything is right. And if it isn’t, it’ll shock me. There’s too much at stake. Watching him as closely as I have over the past dozen years or so, it is apparent he won’t quit until he’s satisfied with the results. And not even that is clear.
But there is still the chance that he could come out flat and listless, leaving those who have chased him for so long the opportunity to live more of a dream.
Sergio Garcia ended the season as No. 2 in the World Golf Ranking and has always said he wanted to be No. 1. If Woods is mortally wounded, which he probably isn’t, it could be the break the flash Spaniard is looking for. And, at 28, he’s picking up steam for the prime of his professional golf career. If I had to guess, this might be Garcia’s year.
Joining him in the 20-something category are Villegas and Kim, who make the biggest splash and are sure to entertain for a long time. Immelman, now 29, must prove that his Masters victory was, in fact, the reason everyone is calling him Gary Player’s protégé and for him to go out and win another eight major titles.
Mickelson has already resigned the fact that he came along at exactly the wrong time, but could still reignite the fire that brought him here in the first place. Whether he does or not is really of no consequence for golf fans. Phil is still fun to watch.
Singh and Furyk are the same way. They are two veterans who can light up a golf course when all the stars are aligned. Singh won the FedExCup last year and has won 23 times since turning 40. Furyk should take note of that. He’ll be 39 this year.
A few other players to watch this year aren’t from around here. Ernie Els is climbing back to his rightful spot at the top of the World Golf Ranking. Finishing in eighth place, the South African is returning to his form that had him on top of the world around the turn of the century. Harrington seems to be getting used to this major thing, although he had some rough going at the end of the season, there’s only so much a guy can do. Usually. Look for Harrington to continue to be a force on several levels. One surprise might be the Americanization of Robert Karlsson. He was the first Swede to win the European Order of Merit when he took the title last year, ranking him sixth in the rankings. He might be satisfied with that, but the cash that remains on the PGA TOUR might be the carrot that gets him over here full time, especially after he finished in the top 10 in each of the there majors he appeared last year.
In any of these scenarios the season is looking like it will be an interesting one and, with the changes to the scoring system for the FedExCup, the ending will be a memorable one. Let’s watch.